


"The Eaters of Light" S10.10: Decoding Doctor Who Season 10 Episodes

by TardisGirlLoveStory



Series: Season 10 Doctor Who [11]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Analysis, F/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 09:05:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11288070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisGirlLoveStory/pseuds/TardisGirlLoveStory
Summary: This is the continuing work of a multi-chapter handbook and meta analysis for Season 10 of BBC's Doctor Who.  While it's not absolutely necessary to read the previous documents, I do build on the concepts and metaphors explained previously.Season 10 spoiler warnings





	1. OMG, the Meaning of the Hair! & Tying in Season 9

**Author's Note:**

> **** Spoiler warning. ****
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Major revelation and tying in the last 3 episodes of Season 9.
> 
> Season 10 spoiler warnings

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/162247222368/ch-1-the-eaters-of-light-analysis-doctor-who/)

 **NOTE:**  
TPEW = “The Pyramid at the End of the World”  
TRODM = “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”  
THORS = “The Husbands of River Song”  
CAL = Charlotte Abigail Lux, the little girl from the Library  
TOS = The Original Series of Star Trek  
TNG = Star Trek: The Next Generation  


##  **Things Not Happening Like They Appear**

Once again, we can’t trust what we know on the surface about this episode.  There are multiple oddities.  Here are a few examples:

####  **The Old Man with Pictish Tattoos**

After the Doctor threw the popcorn on the fire and it started exploding, there is a quick couple of shots (one shown below) of an old man with Pictish tattoos hiding behind a boy.  There were no adults, so who is this?  


####  **Something Is Wrong with the Doctor**

Once again, the Doctor is swinging back and forth in personality, which is a big red flag that says something isn’t right.  One of the most obvious not-right-things this week is that a women screams, but the Doctor and Nardole just stand there.  Why?  

####  **The Eye of Harmony & Harmony Shoal: The Doctor Vs. Himself**

When Bill first encounters a Pict, we get to see the tattoos on Kar’s face, shown below.  Because the tattoo crosses the bridge of her nose (red arrow), it’s reminiscent of the incision lines in the scar-faced people in TRODM.  


In fact, in “The Eaters of Light,” the Doctor says

> **DOCTOR** : Listen, you are all very, very angry, but really you're just very scared. For now, would you mind awfully all just jumping out of your skins and allowing Nardole and I to escape in the confusion?

“Jumping out of your skins” is a reference to Harmony Shoal, but this is opposite to what he said in TRODM to Dr. Sim and Brock at Harmony Shoal when they were talking about capturing The Ghost:

> **DOCTOR** [on screen]: Boo! I'm talking to you live! (the lights come on)  
>  **DOCTOR** : In person! You can jump back in your skins now. Except, of course, they're not _your_ skins, are they?

So this has to do with the Eye of Harmony and the Matrix.

Since the 12th Doctor represents both the Scottish people and the Romans (Caecilius and Roman Rory – both were slaves of a sort), the Picts and Romans represent the 2 sides of the Doctor’s war with himself.  

This gives Nardole’s comment, “Death by Scotland,” new meaning.

In the end, though, the 2 sides come together to try to stave off the inevitable.  The Sun going out.  We’ll see this in some form in the finale.

####  **More _Mary Celeste_ , But There’s a Problem**

We examined the _Mary Celeste_ and disappearance of its crew in [“The Pilot” analysis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10695525/chapters/23688636) because there’s a sign from the ship near the Vault.  I didn’t realize until “The Eaters of Light” that the ship was also a reference to the 1965 1st Doctor story _The Chase_ , so I watched it.  Nardole’s statement below not only doesn’t make sense in the normal fashion, but also it contradicts _The Chase_.

> **NARDOLE** : The way I heard it, the human ship was called the Mary Celeste. Something like that. Anyway, the Enzomodons assumed that any species they encountered would communicate as they did, by digesting each other. The Enzomodon ambassador got through the whole crew and then very sadly choked on a lifeboat, so  
>  (Nardole is now in Pictish garb, including a plaid and the face markings, and lecturing five villagers. The Doctor comes out of the Cairn.)

In _The Chase_ , the Daleks are attributed to the missing crew, who jumped overboard in fear, so this is a change of history.  And enzomodons don’t exist in the TARDIS Wikia.  They sound similar to a biology term.  So what is going on?

Last week, Bill mentioned something interesting in “The Empress of Mars”:

> **NARDOLE** : The Tardis registered multiple life forms below the surface, so this seems like the best place to look.  
>  **BILL** : Maybe someone's been messing around with time. Like in _The Terminator_. 

In _The Terminator_ , a killer robot time travels to prevent a revolution by assassinating someone.  So he’s meddling with time.  That’s a reference to the next 1st Doctor story after _The Chase_ , called _The Time Meddler_.  I hadn’t seen this one, either, so I watched it after I finished _The Chase_.  In fact, there are 12th Doctor references in both episodes.

Both 1st Doctor stories have a huge bearing on what is happening now, including a duplicate, robotic Doctor, which the real Doctor has to fight.

##  **The Empress with New Clothes & Classic Who Writer**

There was so much to write about with last week’s “The Empress of Mars,” but I only got to some of my main points.  However, because “The Eaters of Light” is hammering home a similar plot in different clothes, I get a chance this week to write about some things I didn’t get to for last week.  It’s all the better with more examples.

DW won’t run similar plots back to back unless it’s important for foreshadowing.  

The episode is also tying together **numerous** foreshadowed concepts that we’ve examined over the many chapters of this series.  Here are a few examples: 

  * The exploitation of children, in this case the Romans
  * The Roman and Scottish connections 
  * The Doctor being female in the past 
  * Harmony Shoal and the Eye of Harmony 
  * Duplicate Doctors
  * Expulsion from paradise 
  * The fall of the Doctor 
  * Empire and exploitation in general
  * Falling into the Satan pit 
  * Confronting one’s beast 
  * “The big bad wolf,” as the Doctor called the Eater of Light 
  * Slavery  
  * Gates/doorways that let monsters in through an intermediary 
  * The God complex
  * Various end of time concepts



Therefore, it was exciting for me to see this playing out.  DW is also tying together many of the end-of-time stories to show us the source of them. 

Additionally, Classic Who writer Rona Munro, who wrote the very last Classic Who story, “Survival,” is the first Classic Who writer to write for nuWho.  That’s exciting!  Also, I’m excited to see that we’ve had a couple of connections to Classic Who in these last 2 episodes.

##  **Tying in “Face the Raven,” “Heaven Sent” & “Hell Bent”**

“The Eaters of Light” is metaphorically, among other things, catching us up to Seasons 9’s last 3 episodes: “Face the Raven,” “Heaven Sent” and “Hell Bent.”  “The Eaters of Light” is a retelling, so it’s basically an outline to set up the finale for furthering the story set up in “Hell Bent.”

BTW, one of the things I didn’t get to mention in last week’s “The Empress of Mars” analysis is that the Ice Queen rallied her warriors and said, “Sleep no more, my Warriors. Sleep no more. It is time!”  This is a reference to “Sleep No More,” the episode just before “Face the Raven.” “Sleep No More” then takes on an additional meaning of rallying the sleeping warriors for war.  Sleeping Time Lords were implied in “The End of Time” with Rassilon, and the Ice Queen is a mirror of Rassilon.

After almost a whole Season 10, we are revisiting events from Season 9 because there’s so much story.  Also, it’s so complicated in the subtext because events are told from multiple viewpoints, especially with the 12th Doctor.  We have been watching the story from his 3 different faces, which we have to determine from the subtext.  (The Doctor’s 3 faces show up in “The Eaters of Light.”)

Because of all the viewpoints and subjects the episodes have to cover, they must go back in time and revisit previous events, although in a different way.  This is how DW has worked from the start.  So the whole story is non-linear.  

As far as oddities in Season 10, the 12th Doctor’s erratic behavior is among the easiest things to notice, especially in “The Eaters of Light” that tells us that something isn’t right.  His behavior is reminiscent of Season 8, although I find it harsher in this episode.  

His 3 parts are being highlighted here in metaphors.

####  **“Face the Raven,” Tattoos, Birds & “Let Me Be Brave”**

In the promos leading up to “The Eaters of Light,” the tattooed people reminded me of Ashildr in “Face the Raven” shown below.  Her tattoo, though, is on her neck, and she is in control of the Raven, a Quantum Shade.  


As the Doctor explained

> **DOCTOR** : It's called a Quantum Shade. It's kind of a spirit. Once it's bound to a victim  
>  (The Raven turns to smoke and leaves its cage.)  
>  **DOCTOR** : You could flee across all of time and all of the universe, it would still find you.

So the Raven, a member of the crow family, is also very similar to the crows in “The Eaters of Light.”  The Picts have a relationship with them.  However, the crows are free, unlike the Raven.  Regardless, the crows are metaphors for the Raven.  


Therefore, not only are the Picts a metaphor for the Doctor, but also they are metaphors for Ashildr.  She is a face of the Doctor, so this all lines up.  

The Picts also are djinn, as shown below by the 8-pointed star shape on their shields.  The shields show the djinn symbol inside a circle, indicating they are prisoners.  Interestingly, the birds are free, but these people are in a metaphorical cage.  This episode is running backward from “Face the Raven,” where the Raven was a djinni and imprisoned.  This episode is from Ashildr/Me’s point of view of having to do what Rassilon said to keep the people on Trap Street safe.  And this is just like the Doctor’s situation in “The Lie of the Land.”  So Rassilon comes up again.  Most likely he will show up in the finale.  


**The Doctor as a Bird**  
In “The Pilot,” the Doctor has a bird on his desk.  I don’t know what type of bird it is, but it’s a metaphor for the Doctor.  Here, it looks like it has a pigeon body, but it’s beak is more like that of a coniferous bird.  Anyone have any ideas?  Maybe it’s supposed to be a hybrid.  


We’ve seen the Doctor represented by an Eagle, Raven, and now Crows.  At first, the Doctor tells Nardole the Crows are sulking.

Toward the end, after Kar, Lucius, and another Roman are going to enter the gateway.  The Doctor says something odd and contradictory to the Doctor’s promise “Never cruel or cowardly.”:

> **DOCTOR** : Oh, stop being brave. I can't bear brave people.

However, since this episode is a reworking of “Face the Raven,” it’s a reference to Clara when she has to face the Raven.

> (Clara steps out into the deserted street. The Raven lands on a nearby stall and caws. She walks towards it as other passers-by run away. The Doctor steps out of the doorway.)  
>  **CLARA** : (sotto) Let me be brave. Let me be brave.

The Doctor is ready to take Kar’s and the Romans’ place.  Kar and the Romans, in this case, represent Clara, who is a face of the Doctor.

Earlier in the episode, the Doctor has an interesting conversation with his mirror, Kar.

> **KAR** : I'm remembering the dead.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Oh, right. Well, save that for old age.  
>  **KAR** : They're dead because of me.  
>  **DOCTOR** : You know, every moment you waste wallowing about in that happy thought means more of the living are going to join them. When you want to win a war, remember this. It's not about you. Believe me, I know. Time to grow up, Kar. Time to fight your fight.

With the mirrors, he’s talking to himself.  The dead person in “Face the Raven” is Clara, but he’s sulking, which can help explain his harshness.  In fact, he asked Kar if she was sulking, which started this conversation.

At the end of the episode, Nardole says something important to him after watching Ban with the crow:

> **BAN** : Kar. She's holding the gate. Remember, her name is Kar.  
>  **CROW** : Kar!  
>  **BAN** : Kar.  
>  **CROW** : Kar! Kar! (flies off)  
>  **NARDOLE** : There, you were wrong. The crows aren't sulking. The crows are remembering.  
>  **CROW** : Kar! Kar! Kar!  
>  (They walk off across the moorland.)

The Crows are remembering, so the Doctor is remembering Clara.  We need canon confirmation.  We may see it with the Doctor and Bill first.

####  **“Heaven Sent” & the Eye of Harmony: The Inter-dimensional Temporal Rift**

In “The Eaters of Light,” Doctor goes into an inter-dimensional temporal rift where a second in there equates to days of time on the Pict’s side.  The temporal rift and the gate are similar to what happened in “Heaven Sent,” being that it was actually a Black Hole and the Eye of Harmony, which we examined in [Chapter 17 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23423235).  The Doctor was a Door metaphor there.

In that chapter, we examined how it was a factory, so to speak, for creating an army for Rassilon, using the Doctor’s own energy to power it.  Those beings in the rift in “The Eaters of Light” represent the army.

The army-factory concept, island, castle, creation of almost people and monsters were part of the 2-part, 11th Doctor story in “The Rebel Flesh” and “The Almost People.”  Check out the island with the castle on it, shown below.  It’s a direct reference to the Doctor’s confession dial castle in “Heaven Sent.”  I should have mentioned it in Chapter 17, but I didn’t.  So what happened in those 2 episodes have a direct correlation to what we are seeing now.  In fact, these episodes are also referenced by Judy’s red wellies at the beginning of “The Eaters of Light.”  We’ll examine that in a bit.  


Anyway, at first glance, the creatures in the rift in “The Eaters of Light” reminded me of the fish swimming in the air in “A Christmas Carol.”  However, once one creature comes closer, shown below (white arrow), it looks like some type of lizard.  This scene mirrors the cute fish in “A Christmas Carol,” giving way to a shark.  These creatures in this latest episode also resemble at a distance the flying stingrays from one of the last 10th Doctor episodes “Planet of the Dead.”  Also, they resemble the Gelth from 9th Doctor episode “The Unquiet Dead.”  We also examined that latter episode and the idea of a gateway in Chapter 17.  


There’s a theme here of creatures and gateways in “The Eaters of Light,” “The Unquiet Dead,” and “Planet of the Dead.”  We haven’t looked at the latter episode, so I want to highlight a few things.

 **“The Planet of Dead”**  
“The Planet of Dead” introduced 2 arcs: knocking 4 times and something is returning.  Therefore, it’s appropriate to tie this episode into “The Eaters of Light.”  Knocking 4 times also showed up in “Hell Bent,” “The End of Time,” and “Thin Ice.”

Also, the Doctor and a busload of people pass through a wormhole (another reference to black holes) to an alien world.

They find a swarm of creatures ready to come through the wormhole to Earth’s side, much like what is in “The Eaters of Light.”

####  **“Hell Bent,” the Grudge & Chess**

Nardole said something surprising the first time I heard it:

> **NARDOLE** : (untying the Doctor) I know you're inclined to bear a grudge, so just remember I know about ten percent of your secrets. The dark secrets.

Thinking about it further, I realized it wasn’t surprising at all.

The 12th Doctor bearing a grudge?  Unless I’m not remembering something, we’ve only seen him bear grudges with Rassilon and the High Council in “Hell Bent.”  He did look like he was bearing a grudge against Ashildr/Me, but it vanished at the end of “Hell Bent.”  

In “The End of Time,” the Master also bears a grudge against Rassilon.  Both are end of time events, and the Doctor is mirroring the Master there.

Rassilon also bears a grudge against the Doctor and tries to have him executed.  He probably also holds a grudge against the Master.

 **Chess & War **  
When the universe was nearly dead in “Hell Bent,” Ashildr sat with a chess set when the Doctor arrived.  A sign of war.   

In “The Curse for Fenric,” chess was defined as “war, a game played by politicians.”  Ashildr/Me is Mayor Me.

In “The Eaters of Light,” the 12th Doctor said he had governed in Roman Britain.

So both Ashildr and the Doctor are politicians involved in a chess game.  Ashildr in “Face the Raven” was ministering aid to enemies of the Doctor.  She, in some ways, has been on the opposite side of the war.

##  **Samson & Delilah, David & Goliath: How to Win at Chess**

In “The Empress of Mars,” the Tythonian Hive reference directly alludes to the 4th Doctor episode “The Creature from the Pit.”  In it the Doctor has a conversation with his companion.  I wanted to get to this in last week’s analysis, but ran out of time.  The Doctor talks about a Minotaur, so the whole God complex goes way back.

Even more interesting, Romana is going through the Doctor’s belongings:

> **ROMANA** : All right, but what can you possibly do with the old jawbone of an ass?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Don't be a philistine.

The reference to the “jawbone of an ass” and “Philistine” is an allusion to the Old Testament story of Samson & Delilah.

####  **Samson & Delilah**

OMG, River and the Library!  

While I was just thinking about Samson and Delilah’s story, I had a revelation!  

Samson was given great strength to help him fight his enemies.  The jawbone of an ass is a reference to slaying an entire army with just a jawbone, and he destroyed a Philistine temple with his bare hands.  However, if Samson cut his long hair, he would lose his strength.  I’ve been totally baffled by the Doctor’s unruly hair.  Now, I get it!  

River is Delilah!  

Missy now, too, has unruly hair because she is mirroring the Doctor.

River told the 10th Doctor in the Library: 

> **RIVER** : The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. 

Wow!  She takes him down by the haircut, like Samson!  That’s not exactly how we saw it in THORS, but he ended up on Trap Street, redressed for Christmas.  The whole thing was a trap, and a great deal of time passed in the episode in the subtext, which we examined in a chapter in _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_.

Anyway, regarding Samson, [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson#Delilah) says

> He then falls in love with Delilah in the valley of Sorek.  The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her with 1,100 silver coins to find the secret of Samson's strength so they can get rid of it and capture their enemy.

Delilah keeps trying to figure out the source of his strength, and he keeps telling her different sources, which she tries to exploit.  But they are all lies.

> Eventually after much nagging from Delilah, Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair.  God supplies Samson's power because of his consecration to God as a Nazirite, symbolized by the fact that a razor has never touched his head.

In “The Name of the Doctor,” there was a conversation about the Doctor’s name, which is a similar metaphor – a Holy Grail:

> **VASTRA** : This, Mister DeMarco claims, is the location of the Doctor's greatest secret.  
>  **CLARA** : Which is?  
>  **JENNY** : We don't know. It's a secret.  
>  **VASTRA** : The Doctor does not discuss his secrets with anyone, my dear. If you're still entertaining the idea that you are an exception to this rule, ask yourself one question. What is his name?  
>  (Something invisible touches Jenny's cheek.)  
>  **RIVER** : Well, I know it.  
>  **CLARA** : What, you know his name? He told you?  
>  **RIVER** : I made him.  
>  **CLARA** : How?  
>  **RIVER** : It took a while.

So the Doctor’s name AND hair are metaphorical Holy Grails!  

OMG, I still am blown away by how DW is doing this!  This is exactly why I find this all so fascinating.

In fact, this explains why the Doctor’s hair started out short and started to grow longer over seasons 8 and 9.  Metaphorically, his strength was growing, and that matches the Great Work.

####  **David & Goliath**

While the jawbone of an ass definitely refers to the story of Samson and Delilah, Philistines are part of a second story in the Old Testament, which is very relevant: David and Goliath.

In the story, there is a war between the Israelites and the Philistines.  Goliath, a Philistine giant, fights the young David, who is armed with a sling.  David kills the giant and becomes a hero and future king of the Israelites.

In both “The Empress of Mars” and “The Eaters of Light,” there are superior forces fighting ill-equipped forces, mirroring the Goliath vs. David story: the Ice Warriors vs. the Victorian British troop and the Romans vs. the Pictish band, turning into the Romans and Picts fighting the Eaters of Light.

Captain Catchlove in “The Empress of Mars” mentions that Colonel Godsacre is not the hero of the Battle of Isandlwana that he appears to be.  He deserted.  While I briefly mentioned what happened, I never got to put it in context of David and Goliath.

In the Battle of Isandlwana, about 20,000 Zulus armed mainly with traditional iron spears and cowhide shields annihilated the British invasion force of about 1800 men, armed with state-of-the art weapons, and maybe 400 other civilians.

In both episodes, however, there is a beast of a different type that changes the balance of power.

The Eaters of Light change the situation between the Romans and Picts, threatening everyone.

In “The Empress of Mars,” the Doctor mans the Gargantua and threatens to destroy all their lives.  He says either they live together or die together.  In one way, he is David (one man) against a huge army.  However, he is the one that ends up with the giant weapon, mirroring the Eaters of Light.

 ** _The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel_**  
Gargantua is a reference to 5 novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, which, according to Wikipedia, tells of the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel.  Gargantua’s wife died giving birth to his son.  And a character is beheaded, which sounds like Nardole, and Gargantua sews the head back on.  A whole nation lives in Pantagruel’s mouth, which sounds something like people living on the Star Whale’s back or in CAL’s mind.

####  **The Winning Chess Strategy: Working Together**

Working together is another theme that I didn’t get to last week.  In “The Empress of Mars” and “The Eaters of Light,” the forces have to work together to survive.

“The Curse of Fenric” may give us an idea of what is happening because it looks like “The Curse of Fenric” and chess are playing out with the 12th Doctor.  But this is a deadly game of live chess, like we saw before with the 11th Doctor in “The Wedding of River Song.”

Most likely, the Valeyard is at work here.

Fenric is most likely the Valeyard.  According to the TARDIS Wikia:

> Fenric, also known as Hastur the Unspeakable, Aboo-Fenrán, the Wolf and the Hunger, was an immensely powerful sentient force that was at least as old as the universe itself and an intelligence of pure evil, later identified as a Great Old One.

Commander Millington in “The Curse of Fenric” wants to win the war at any cost, so he plans to poison the enemy with the curse, which brings on Ragnarök.

> **MILLINGTON** : Let me see. (reads) I warn of the day when the earth shall fall asunder, and all of heaven too. The Wolves of Fenric shall return for their treasure, and then shall the dark evil rule eternally. This is it. The final battle between the gods and the beasts. It's now, Judson. The Curse of Fenric.

The 7th Doctor has fought Fenric before with a chess game and won, trapping Fenric.  However, Fenric got free:

> **JUDSON** : You left me in the shadow dimensions, trapped for seventeen centuries. But now I've found a body again, and the preparations are complete.

The Doctor has to play chess again with Fenric; however, Ace accidentally gives the enemy the Doctor’s winning strategy:

> **ACE** : A brilliant move. The black and white pawns don't fight each other, they join forces.

So to defeat Fenric, the Doctor has to break Ace’s confidence in him because Ace is under Fenric’s control.

##  **The Roman Vs. Scottish Sides of the Doctor & Companion Obsessions**

The Eater of Light is as much a metaphor for one’s inner beast as it is an external monster.  In fact, the Roman vs. Scots struggle represents the Doctor’s internal struggle within himself, as a hybrid.  

In “Deep Breath,” the Doctor defined the Roman side of his mirror, the half-faced man:

> **DOCTOR** : Well, it would need a constant supply of spare parts. You can tan skin, but organs rot. Some of that metalwork looks Roman. Wonder how long it's been around, how much of the original is even left? The eyeballs look very fresh, though.

The Roman side is the robotic side, which makes sense, too, from Rory’s situation.

####  **Romans & the Last 3 Companions**

**Amy**  
One of Amy’s interests included, according to Wikipedia, “the Roman occupation of Britain, on which she had several books, along with her favourite book, Pandora's Box. She didn't receive a good grade for her paper on the Romans due to titling it ‘Invasion of the Hot Italians’. (TV: The Eleventh Hour, Let's Kill Hitler, The Pandorica Opens)”  Also, she put a party photo into a book on Roman Britain.

Amy also has a look alike (or is it Amy having gone back in time?) in “The Fires of Pompeii,” who is a soothsayer in the Sibylline Sisterhood.

Amy, in “The Eleventh Hour,” says that she is sometimes a nun, sometimes a kiss-o-gram, and sometimes a policeman.

The 12th Doctor has been trying to deny he’s a policeman in seasons 9 and 10.

 **Clara**  
In “Deep Breath,” Clara and Vastra were having a disagreement about Clara’s behavior regarding the 12th Doctor’s new face.  Clara to counter Vastra talked about being a fan of Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor. According to Clara, “Last of the five good 'uns. Stoic philosopher.”  When she was 15, she had only one poster on her wall – the emperor.  

**Bill**  
Bill has read one book on the Roman 9th Legion and got an A star, so she considers herself an expert on the legion’s non-disappearance.

It was really a very odd debate she had with the Doctor about the missing legion.

Anyway, the Roman 9th Legion really did disappear from history.

The debate between Bill and the Doctor seems backward.  When it comes to the missing Roman 9th Legion, English novelist Rosemary Sutcliff in 1954 wrote the book most often cited, called _The Eagle of the Ninth_.  Based on some historical information, some of which has been confirmed, she presents the view that the Romans were annihilated on the battlefield in Britain.  So what book did Bill read? 

The eagle does represent the Romans, so we have to extend our Eagle metaphor.

##  **Vestal Virgins in Rome, Angels & the Doctor’s 2nd Class Rating**

The Doctor said that he was once a Vestal Virgin, 2nd Class.  In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins, priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, gained great power.  Their existence was deemed fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome.  After Rome converted to Christianity and fell, some blamed it on the absence of the priestesses.  

Parents committed their daughters to the priestesshood before puberty (when 6–10 years old), and the children took a vow of chastity for 30 years.  After that, they were free to marry.

They sound a lot like the Sisterhood of Karn in that they cultivated the sacred fire or flame that was not allowed to go out.

So the Doctor being a Vestal Virgin does support the hypothesis that he was a female as a child.

####  **2nd Class, _It’s a Wonderful Life_ & “Turn Left”**

I’m not an authority on Vestal Virgins, but 2nd Class sounds very strange.  A reference that immediately came to mind was the 1946 movie _It’s a Wonderful Life_. 

It mirrors what happens in “Turn Left” when we see life without the Doctor.  

The film is based on Philip Van Doren Stern's 1943 short story "The Greatest Gift."  According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life):

> The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born.

Much like dystopian life without the Doctor in “Turn Left,” Bedford Falls becomes, metaphorically, Bedford Fell.  In the dystopian segment, it actually does get renamed to Pottersville after tyrannical Mr. Potter.

The Doctor, as a 2nd Class Vestal Virgin, would then be Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, who is trying to get his wings.  Doctor Angel, trying to earn his wings, would become the Doctor’s personal savior, as Clarence became George’s.  

The Doctor’s personal saviors in “Turn Left” were Rose and alternate-Donna.  If we go by the mirrors of the movie and “Turn Left,” the Doctor we see in “The Eaters of Light” is the alternate-Doctor who will be a personal savior of the Doctor.  Is that Missy?  We’ll examine that in a bit.

We examined the 10th and 12th Doctor’s metaphorical angels in [Chapter 16 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23325488).  Here’s a very short version:

 **10th Doctor & “The Satan Pit”**  
The 10th Doctor jumps into the very deep pit in “The Satan Pit” and survives, which makes him realize someone prepared it for him to survive.  

**12th Doctor & “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”**  
We saw something similar in TRODM when the 12th Doctor’s cable and rope broke as he hung upside down outside Grant’s window.  He falls, which is a metaphor for falling into Satan’s Pit, but somehow survives and climbs in Grant’s window after Grant talks to his mother.

> **YOUNG GRANT** : Mom says you can come in. You're expected.

Grant’s mother is the Doctor’s mother, since Grant represents the young Doctor.  She’s expecting the Doctor and must be the angel who is saving him.

In fact, in “The End of Time,” an angel is associated with the Doctor’s Mother on TV and Wilfred, Donna Noble’s grandfather.  Wilfred was like a dad, in a way, to the 10th Doctor, and he was a face of the 11th Doctor.  Will the 11th Doctor show up?  He’s been in the subtext a few times in Season 10.   


Interestingly, we examined how the Doctor was associated with the Virgin Mary in “Extremis.”

 **Bill and Pits in “The Empress of Mars” & “The Eaters of Light”**  
In both “The Empress of Mars” and “The Eaters of Light,” Bill falls into pits and survives, mirroring both the 10th and 12th Doctors.

In both episodes, she’s stepped up and become like the Doctor by mediating the situations.  She’s actually mirroring the Doctor.

##  **Bill Mirrors Martha in “The Doctor’s Daughter”**

Bill is not just mirroring the Doctor in the episode, but also she is mirroring Martha in “The Doctor’s Daughter.”

In that episode, Martha gets separated from the Doctor and Donna and ends up on one side of the war with the aliens called the Hath, who were fish-like people.  While the Doctor, Donna, and the Doctor’s replicated daughter Jenny end up on the humans’ side of the war with General Cobb, whom wants to commit genocide against the Hath.

Martha can’t easily communicate with the Hath, who have water devices on their faces.  However, through rudimentary communication, she does befriend one of them, who ends up sacrificing himself to save her.

So in a twist to the Hath and communication problems, Bill learns about the gift of translation of the Doctor and TARDIS.

####  **“People Like Me and You, We Should Say Things to One Another”**

One of the themes that I didn’t get to in “The Empress of Mars” analysis was communication.  That it comes up again in “The Eaters of Light” is very significant, and with the setting and other elements of the story, it takes on additional meaning.  

In fact, you may recognize the title of this section as what Clara said to the Doctor in “Hell Bent” when they were in the Cloisters.  Since “The Eaters of Light” has a lot to do with Clara and communication, the title seems like foreshadowing for things to come.  Also, Sweetie wrappers is probably a reference to River.  

####  **Gift of Translation by the Doctor & TARDIS with a 10th Doctor Reference**

While communication comes in different forms (e.g., dialogue, sign language, and music) and levels from basic to intimate, being able to express oneself at the most basic level is a big plot point in “The Eaters of Light.”  Without speaking a similar language, it’s impossible to form friendships and alliances, and the latter is at the very heart of this long story and chess game, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Bill recognized that the Doctor or the TARDIS or both translated languages, which is why people in space all speak English.

> **LUCIUS** : You speak Latin?  
>  **KAR** : I don't.  
>  **BILL** : Neither do I. Not a word. And I don't speak whatever they speak either. It's him. It's you, isn't it?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Yes, it's me.  
>  **BILL** : Something to do with the Tardis. Maybe, telepathic field?

While we don’t get an answer here, the Doctor as part of the circuit for translation came up in the first 10th Doctor story [“The Christmas Invasion.”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/28-0.htm)  The Sycorax were trying to take control of Earth while the Doctor was unconscious, recovering from regeneration.

> **ROSE** : I don't understand what they're saying. The Tardis translates alien languages inside my head, all the time, wherever I am.  
>  **MICKEY** : So, why isn't it doing it now?  
>  **ROSE** : I don't know. Must be the Doctor. Like he's part of the circuit, and he's, he's broken.  

Rose speaks of the Doctor, as though he were a broken machine.  

####  **The Doctor’s Lack of Communication Theme: Women Have to Take Control**

The statement that the Doctor can give others the gift of communication is a striking contrast to the Doctor’s own problems with communication.  His own failings are at the heart of at least part of the problems.  

The Doctor’s lack of communication is called out in multiple ways in this episode, but it follows a trend, especially with the 12th Doctor.  

> **DOCTOR** : I've got a better idea this time.  
>  **BILL** : Which is the part you never tell me.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Don't I?  
>  **BILL** : No.  
>  **DOCTOR** : I probably just get interrupted. 

True to form, he got interrupted.  And in all fairness to him, when he was going to tell Bill about his blindness after Nardole pushed Bill to ask the Doctor what was wrong, he once again got interrupted.  Getting interrupted, too, has become a theme with him, and missing memories of Clara fits in this category.

It can’t be coincidence, especially since he called out the problem.  Someone is directing things, and it sounds like it might be Missy or River.

Certainly, the Doctor has been terrible about expressing love and fears.  We know the Doctor isn’t afraid to talk about running from the Untempered Schism.  However, when it comes to talking about emotions, he avoids the subject almost at all costs, it seems.

Of course, it’s not exclusive to the 12th Doctor, especially when it comes to love, but the 12th Doctor is the most guarded when it comes to talking about emotions.

 **The Doctor & River**  
The Doctor is terrible at telling his own wife how he feels about her.  Therefore, River felt unloved and poured out her heart in THORS, showing a vulnerability that we’ve never seen from her.  The Doctor got a rude awakening there.  River had to be the one to pour out her heart first.

 **The Doctor & Clara**  
We saw the Doctor guarding emotions with Clara, although he did open up more from the 8th to the 9th seasons.  However, she only realized his love and devotion once she learned he spent 4.5 billion years being interrogated and tortured before coming back for her.

She had to take the reins and say, “People like me and you, we should say things to one another.”  Hopefully, we’ll finally learn what she said.

 **The Doctor & Bill**  
The Monks wouldn’t have taken control of Earth, most likely, if the Doctor had let Bill know about his blindness.

In response, Bill has really stepped up to take charge, especially in the last few episodes.  She even went as far as to help save the Doctor from himself in “The Eaters of Light” by not allowing him to go back into the rift.  Nardole, too, stepped in and tied up the Doctor.  It was a mirror, too, of the Library scene with River before she died.

##  **The Coming Gut Punch, “Heaven Sent” & “The Girl Who Waited”**

Moffat has set up some odd situations this year with, for example, the whole Doctor-executing-Missy thing and the anticlimactic Vault reveal.  However, from the subtext, we know these things weren’t happening like the text showed.

No doubt, he has some big gut punches coming.  

I see “The Eaters of Light” as directly foreshadowing what is coming.  

In relation to the last 3 episodes of Season 9, only “Face the Raven” was highlighted in “The Light Eaters.”  Most likely, we’ll see some retelling of “Heaven Sent” and “Hell Bent,” which brings in “The End of Time” two-part story.

From the clips, we will see the Eye of Harmony, which is a Black Hole.  

In “Heaven Sent,” the Doctor was in a different time stream, so to speak, from Clara.

It looks like Bill will be “The Girl Who Waited,” mirroring Amy in a different time stream, while waiting for the Doctor and Rory to rescue her.  But Rory was a prisoner in the subtext, mirroring Rorybot, a sentient robot.  The 12th Doctor would be the Rorybot mirror.  However, Missy is also mirroring the Doctor, and so is Bill.

BTW, Bill and the 12th Doctor’s promo shot mirrors somewhat a shot from “The Beast Below.”  


Here’s the 11th Doctor holding Amy while she is floating in space.  While Amy is having fun, Bill looks fearful of something.   


##  **Next Chapter or So**

I will have one or two chapters to add, talking about the meaning of the TARDIS on the rock, the beast on the stone, red wellies, Guardians, and more.


	2. The Doctor Is a Prisoner, Stripes, Duplication, Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several themes, clothing choices, metaphors, Classic Who arc, and much more.
> 
> Season 10 spoiler warnings

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/162259734738/ch-2-the-eaters-of-light-analysis-doctor-who/)

##  **Siblings Theme**

“The Eaters of Light” opening shows first a young girl, and then almost immediately we see her older brother.  Siblings are a theme with a major reference last week pointing to siblings, and this week we have 2 more pairs of siblings.  

However, the main reference to siblings comes from one the children to be rescued, whom we examined in [Chapter 18 _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23517906).  In the Season 8 episode “In the Forest of the Night,” Maebh’s older sister, Annabel, appears at the end, seemingly transforming from a bush to a girl.

This would appear to point to the importance of siblings coming up in the finale or Christmas special.  

####  **Judy & Her Brother, Kar & Ban**

In “The Eaters of Light,” young Judy goes to the ancient Pictish stones to listen to the music.  She has a sense of fearlessness about the potential ghosts getting her because it’s the music that is important to her.  Her brother makes multiple attempts to pull her away, fearing the ghosts and getting in trouble if something happens.  

At the end, we see her come back to the stones alone to listen to the music.

In comparison, we see another pair of siblings: Kar and her brother Ban.  Kar, while fearful of the Eater of Light, is the one near the beginning of the episode facing the most danger of any of the Picts, including her brother.  As gatekeeper, she has to face the beast to keep it from getting loose and devouring everyone, but things didn’t quite go that way.  She let it through to destroy the Roman army, whom she thought was more dangerous.  However, to protect the Picts, she doomed her whole world.

Kar’s actions mirror Bill’s since Bill let the Monks in to save the Doctor.  Kar is also a mirror of the Doctor, and this also seems to be foreshadowing the Doctor dooming the world by letting Missy loose.

At the end of the episode, Kar faces her beast and is more like Judy, while Ban is more like Judy’s brother in that he didn’t go into the gateway.

##  **Nardole’s, Bill’s & Sibling’s Stripes **

Since the very 1st Doctor, stripes and plaids (tartans) have been used in some of the Doctor’s outfits, as well as his companions’.  

Stripes are a reference to the English idiom “show one’s stripes” or “show one’s true stripes.”  A variant of it is “to show one’s true colors.”  It means revealing one’s true beliefs, desires, character, or personality.  

The patterns give us some information about integrations and sexuality.  Time Lord integrations, for example, mean they are both male and female at the same time.  Stripes going one way are homosexual while plaids, which go both ways, are bisexual.

####  **Nardole**  


Nardole wears a lot of plaid, although at the beginning of “The Eaters of Light,” he is wearing something odd: a bathrobe.  This is a reference to Amy wearing her nightclothes while on _Starship UK_ in “The Beast Below,” where everyone is dreaming.  This calls attention to the resolution coming for the Star Whale.

Anyway, shown below is Nardole in his horizontal-striped hat (yellow arrow), vertical-striped bathrobe (cyan arrow), and plaid pants (white arrow).  


These stripe patterns are really interesting.  I don’t remember seeing something like this before.  We know Nardole is made of different parts, as he’s part cyborg.  His lungs are human while he isn’t.  The 3 patterns suggest to me that his head is one part with horizontal stripes.  His body represents a different part with vertical stripes.  His legs represent something else and are integrated.

Also, it’s possible this can suggest that his head, for example, is male, his body female, and his legs are one of each or come from an integrated being.

When the Doctor is in the rift and comes out, we see that Nardole has tattoos on his face.  He’s blending in, as he says.  His changes represent an integration.  Check out his clothes below, which also suggest an integration.   


Now, he truly looks like a patchwork person.  He represents the face of the unactualized Doctor, who has taken on more integrations.

Nardole’s hat (yellow arrow) hasn’t changed.  It’s still horizontally striped.  However, he’s not wearing his bathrobe.  Instead, he’s wearing a solid shirt with an historical kilt, which I believe is called a “great kilt.”  (I’m only aware of them because of the _Outlander_ TV series.  Please let me know if there is some other name for it.)  The plaid on his chest is running diagonally (green arrow), while the knee-length skirt part (white arrow) is worn normally.  He has a different plaid for pants, like knickers with solid socks.  But he has horizontal-striped shoes (yellow arrow).

It looks like he closed his eyes and pulled whatever out of the closet, but it really shows that he’s made of different parts.

**Bill**

In contrast, Bill has stripes only going one way with curves.  Sometimes, she wears vertical stripes.

**Siblings**

The siblings at the beginning of “The Eaters of Light” wear plaid, shown below.  This suggests they are both integrated beings (both male and female).  Integrated beings in DW are the ones who are more likely to be turned into a cyborg or some type of hybrid.  In fact, Judy also has fasteners (white arrow) like Nardole does.  Her brother has red and blue plaid, which may indicate he is 2 beings in 2 different universes or time streams.  We’ll examine another example of Judy’s mirror in another time strean in a bit.  


##  **Are Missy & the Doctor Siblings?**

With siblings a theme, I have little doubt that siblings have to be a part of the rescue, as we’ve seen with Annabel.  Maebh was a mirror of young River, so that suggests that it’s River’s sister who gets rescued.  And Baby Melody Pond wasn’t just one being, as we examined in the subtext.

Right now, it seems the Doctor might be trying to get his wings and rescue Missy, which could also be an analogy to River rescuing the Doctor.  

It’s clear that Missy is mirroring the Doctor.  It may be that Missy represents the Doctor’s duplicate, so we have a real Doctor and an imposter.  It could also be that Missy represents the Doctor’s own beast that he has to kill.  Could she be the Doctor and the Doctor the Master?  That’s how DW is mirroring a lot of what has been going on.  In a false universe that has to die, it’s not out of the question.

The subtext shows that things are going backwards, too, so we’ll have to wait to see what the subtext says in the upcoming episode, “World Enough and Time.”

One other thing is that Missy’s tears did seem genuine in this episode.  Once again, though, she was mirroring the Doctor with the music, when he and River in THORS were at the Singing Towers of Darillium.

##  **The Rescue**

There are several indications that the rescue is near.  We’ve already seen a reference to “The Beast Below.”  However, there are other signs.

####  **The Horse Is Back**

There’s a really tiny horse (red arrow) in the bookcase on the other side of the TARDIS, so letting Missy out is part of the rescue plan.  It’s obviously going to get a lot worse before it gets better.  


This really is an odd shot in the camera’s placement being far away and below Nardole and the Doctor.  That gives some power to them.  Also odd is the Doctor’s and Nardole’s placement in relation to each other.  Nardole represents the child Doctor, which we looked at a long time ago, although we’ve also looked at many other mirrors, too.  He’s 237 years old, BTW.  That figure came up in TPEW as a statistic of the Doctor’s sonic glasses.

####  **The TARDIS on the Rock, the Legend of the Blue Box & the Rescue**

After Judy and her brother leave the Pictish stone temple, the camera pans to the TARDIS carved into the rock, shown below.  This is very similar to 2 other occurrences of the blue box being idolized: “The End of Time” and “The Fires of Pompeii.”  


**“The End of Time,” Part 1**  
“The End of Time” is John Simm’s Master’s last appearance.  In the [Chapter 18 of Fairytales and _Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23517906), we examined the Legend of the Blue Box as told to Donna Noble’s grandfather by the woman who was hired to be the Doctor’s mother.  In the church they were in, there is a tiny TARDIS (white arrow) in the stained glass window, along with what looks like Jesus with 11 Apostles.  The Doctor’s Mother metaphor wanted to rescue him, so the TARDIS on the rock is a signal that we have come back to this story, along with the Master’s part to play.  


**“The Fires of Pompeii”**  
But that’s not all.  In “The Fires of Pompeii” at the end, after the 10th Doctor and Donna saved Lobus Caecilius and his family, their shrine to the household gods changed from Roman gods to the Doctor, TARDIS, and Donna, in the image below.   


Oops!  The Doctor and Donna are now thought of as gods, so there’s a God complex.  They changed time, which could have rippled through to the _Mary Celeste_ and other things.  

Scientifically, these changes would have created a parallel universe.  

##  **Pictish Beast, River Reference, Crows & the Doctor Is a Prisoner**

The creature we see pictured on the Pictish stones is a real symbol.   


According to Wikipedia:

> The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is an artistic representation of an animal depicted on Pictish symbol stones.
> 
> The Pictish Beast is not easily identifiable with any real animal, but resembles a seahorse, especially when depicted upright. Suggestions have included a dolphin, a kelpie (or each uisge), and even the Loch Ness Monster.

Did Loch-less eat a bunch of Roman soldiers at some point?

The Eater of Light should be aquatic, given the Pictish Beast representation, but that is another oddity of the episode.  The Eater of Light, however, does have tentacles similar to a squid.  It’s like a hybrid, and that may be the point.

Anyway, there are mentions of the wind and a labyrinth, regarding the beast.  

> (Vitus leads the way with a flaming brand. There is a hissing sound and he stops. They whisper.)  
>  **VITUS** : Shh!  
>  **LUCIUS** : It's nothing. It's the wind in the rocks. Forward, centurion. Keep going. There are lots of entrances the beast could get through. It's a labyrinth.

River said in THORS that it was never just the wind, so this is a reference to River.  And it’s really interesting that Missy ends up crying because of the music.  Lucius in particular is the Doctor’s mirror.  We’ll examine him more in the next chapter. 

Lucius mentions the labyrinth, which is a reference to “The God Complex” and the Minotaur.  Because the Minotaur is a metaphor for the Doctor, which we looked at in the [“Extremis” analysis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11002860/chapters/24511071), that makes the Eaters of Light also a metaphor of the Doctor.

“The Eaters of Light” is an interesting name.  We know the Sun has to die, along with this Matrix universe, so he’s fighting a losing battle.  This means people on the outside are trying to save the Doctor.  However, he’s fighting it on the inside, which again is also a metaphor for the internal struggle.

####  **Crows, the Gateway & the Doctor Is a Prisoner**

The TARDIS on the Rock is not the only symbol being idolized.  The crow flies over and sits on the rock in the opening of the episode.  It says, “Doc-tor! Doc-tor! Doc-tor! Doc-tor!”

Given the crows at the end are remembering Kar fighting in the temporal rift, it suggests the Doctor at the beginning is the one in the temporal rift, as the gatekeeper – the Door metaphor.  

Here’s an image below of the Doctor with a pot hanging from a chain.  He actually crosses the path of the chain.  The scene is easier to see if you watch the episode.  


That meshes with what we’ve examined before in “Heaven Sent.”  The Sun is a Door, creating the plague of monsters, which actually played out in “The Eaters of Light.”  Of course, plague means duplication, and there are several references to that again in this episode.

##  **The Crow & the Dark Doctor: White & Black Guardians, Key to Time?**

One of the Crows sits on a rock when Nardole and the Doctor come by.  It says multiple words, including, “Dark Doctor.”  Since the Doctor is imprisoned, it makes sense that this would be the Dark Doctor.  


Before “The Eaters of Light,” I had only seen the first 2 episodes of a season-long arc that might also pertain to the Dark Doctor that started with the 4th Doctor.  However, I also found it in some 5th Doctor’s episodes.  I haven’t investigated this more, due to lack of time.  But the arc could also explain what is happening, at least some of the episodes do.

Back in the first season with the 4th Doctor’s companion Romana I, there was a quest given to the Doctor by the White Guardian, regarding the Keys to Time.  According to the TARDIS Wikia:

The White Guardian, more accurately called the Guardian of Light in Time (TV: The Stones of Blood), was the anthropomorphic personification of order and good in the same way that his opposite, the Black Guardian, embodied evil and chaos. However, different interfaces of the Guardians held different perspectives, with the Black Guardian later claiming to represent freedom while the White Guardian embodied domination. The Fifth Doctor even criticised him as the lesser of two evils, embodying the letter of the law rather than the spirit. (AUDIO: _The Destroyer of Delights_ )

I’m specifically including the non-canon audio description here because I don’t know enough about the subtext of the Guardians to come to my own conclusions.  The description provides a cautionary note, which I wholeheartedly embrace.

In fact, if this universe has to die but the White Guardian wanted to maintain it for stability, that would be a contradiction.  The Doctor and Master may be operating in the same way here if the Master wants to destroy the false universe, but the Doctor wants to keep it.

####  **Key to Time**

Anyway, the quest for the 4th Doctor and Romana is to find the 6 parts of the Key to Time.  According to the TARDIS Wikia:

> The Key to Time was a powerful and legendary artefact which the Guardians of Time used to maintain the equilibrium of time itself, (TV: _The Ribos Operation_ )

In “The Ribos Operation,” the White Guardian tells the Doctor about the Key.

> **GUARDIAN** : The Key to Time is a perfect cube, which maintains the equilibrium of time itself.  
>  (A holographic image of a spinning cube appears for illustration, then fades away.)  
>  **GUARDIAN** : It consists of six segments, and these segments are scattered and hidden throughout the cosmos. When they are assembled into the cube, they create a power which is too dangerous for any being to possess.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Well hidden then, I hope, sir.  
>  **GUARDIAN** : There are times, Doctor, when the forces within the universe upset the balance to such an extent that it becomes necessary to stop everything.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Stop everything?  
>  **GUARDIAN** : For a brief moment only.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Ah.  
>  **GUARDIAN** : Until the balance is restored. Such a moment is rapidly approaching. These segments must be traced and returned to me before it is too late, before the Universe is plunged into eternal chaos.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Eternal chaos?  
>  **GUARDIAN** : Eternal as you understand the term.

We haven’t heard about the Key that I can remember in nuWho.  However, there are keys around the necks of the Smilers in “The Beast Below.”  While we already looked at that symbolism a long time ago, there may be additional symbolism to consider.

##  **Bill, the Doctor, White & Black Guardians, 9th Legion**

Bill and the Doctor have the debate at the beginning about what happened to the Roman 9th Legion.  It really is very odd, which gets my suspicion meter going about the subtext.  According to the Doctor at least 5000 people died, but, according to Bill, no one died.  Maybe she’s reading alternative history from the changed timeline?  Regardless, the oddness turns to a macabre subject of having to check this out.

It’s almost like a game or bet.

####  **The White & Black Guardians & the Game**

I bring this up because when I watched the 4th Doctor story “The Stones of Blood,” which has similarities, the White and Black Guardians have a similar game type thing going on.  That was surprising and odd. 

In the 5th Doctor story “Enlightenment,” which I also watched (wow, I’ve got to check out titles!), the Black Guardian wants the Doctor’s companion to kill the Doctor.  Enlightenment is exactly what we’ve been examining with the Great Work, so it made me really take notice.

We find out that enlightenment gives beings the ability to see all of time.  Then, they can create and destroy as they like.  We’ve examined how the Sun stage is dangerous.  The creation we’ve seen has been with the plague cross, and certainly we’ve seen destruction with solar flares, for example.

Anyway, one of the characters ends up throwing a crystal at the Black Guardian, who erupts in flames and disappears.  However, the White Guardian says while he exists, so does the Black Guardian.  This tells me they are dualistic.  That totally makes sense from what we’ve examined.

Which is probably like the dualistic nature of the Doctor and Master or the Doctor and Missy.  As long as there is no unification, there has to be duality.

##  **Judy’s Red Wellies Refer to Doctor Duplication & a Monster**

“The Eaters of Light” opens with young Judy walking near the Pictish stones.  In the image below, she is lying on the ground and listening to the Celtic music.   


Her red wellies are a reference to Jennifer Lucas, who as a child, shown below, got lost on the moors while wearing them.  And that leads into several pieces of foreshadowing, which includes Rory.  


This makes Jennifer and Judy mirrors: one dressed in blue plaid and the other in red plaid, suggesting 2 different universes, like in “Hide.”

Jennifer is one of the characters in “The Rebel Flesh” and “The Almost People.”  It’s the 2-part, island castle episode where several people, including the Doctor, end up with duplicates called Gangers, who start to rebel.  Also, we find out Amy has a Ganger on the TARDIS while another version is about to give birth.

A solar storm hits the army-run, 22nd century factory, that mines acid.  The surge in power turns the workers' Gangers into self-aware individuals.  

At one point Ganger Jennifer reminisces about her child self while looking at the photo above:

> **G-JENNIFER** : When I was a little girl, I got lost on the moors, wandered off from the picnic. I can still feel how sore my toes got inside my red welly boots. And I imagined another little girl, just like me, in red wellies, and she was Jennifer too. Except she was a strong Jennifer, a tough Jennifer. She'd lead me home. My name is Jennifer Lucas. I am not a factory part. I had toast for my breakfast. I wrote a letter to my mum. And then you arrived. I noticed your eyes right off.

Judy had the spirit and fearlessness of confronting ghosts that Ganger Jennifer didn’t have.  In fact, fear and anger were at the heart of the problems: fear of suddenly becoming human and anger for lack of acceptance.

> **AMY** : Doctor, you said they wouldn't be violent.  
>  **DOCTOR** : But I did say they were scared and angry.

A rebellion breaks out led by the Gangers, especially Jennifer’s, and the Doctor must mediate between them and the original people.  The Doctor, himself, ends up with a Ganger.

However, there’s something more ominous going on in these 2 episodes.  Jennifer ends up with 2 Gangers, and one turns into a monster and kills the 2nd Ganger.  Jennifer, herself, dies of hypothermia, leaving just the monster, which wants revenge for humans thinking of Gangers as disposable people.  The Ganger concept is similar to the throwaway people in “Oxygen.”

And the subtext shows that Rory is a mirror of Jennifer. 

Ganger Jennifer has a hidden face with the reflection in the image below, but the mirror is divided into 3 sections.  She is in 2 of the mirrors, having 1 original face and another, the other Ganger.   


In this image below, Jennifer is in a stall while Rory looks on.  He also has a reflection spanning 2 mirrors, so he is a mirror of Jennifer.  Also interesting is that Jennifer is the name of the Doctor’s daughter.  


This scene in the bathroom mirrors, in a lot of ways, the scene between the 12th Doctor and Bill in “The Pilot,” where Heather comes through the mirror.

This all suggests the 12th Doctor has an imposter, who is a monster, which fits what we’ve examined.

At the end of “The Rebel Flesh,” the original 11th Doctor tells his Ganger, who is about to sort of die

> **DOCTOR** : Your molecular memory can survive this, you know. It may not be the end.

This location is a 13th century castle, which is 13 or 1 on a clock, depending on how you look at it.  And both are faces in the subtext of the 12th Doctor.  In comparison, shown below, is Hydroflax’s robot without the head.  However, in this image it looks like it has a clock for a head in a perfectly centered camera shot.   


The time is about 1:50.  The monster part is a robot and is labeled 1, as opposed to the 12th Doctor’s actual number.  Hydroflax is a time head, referencing Amy’s concern that her baby might be affected by Amy‘s travel in space.  Things in THORS are running backward, as well as being distorted.

##  **Duplication & Killer Robots Going Back in Time to Change History**

In both the previous episode and “The Eaters of Light,” there are references to duplication and killer robots going back in time to change history.

####  **_Mary Celeste_** **, Duplication & Assassination in _The Chase_**

The _Mary Celeste_ reference brings in the entire 1st Doctor story _The Chase_.  Check out the episode titles.   Back then DW titled each episode.  (The _Mary Celeste_ shows up in “Flight Through Eternity.”):

  * "The Executioners"
  * "The Death of Time"
  * "Flight Through Eternity"
  * "Journey into Terror"
  * "The Death of Doctor Who"
  * "The Planet of Decision"



Season 10 is tracking many of the elements of this story: duplication, assassination, killer robot, dreams, nightmares, psychological manipulation, slime and tentacled beasts, Doctor fighting Doctor, death of the imposter, etc.  And OMG, Frankenstein’s Monster shows up!   Along with Dracula, and it just so happens the Eaters of Light need blood.

Overall, _The Chase_ is about the Daleks (their 3rd appearance) chasing the Doctor in their own time machine through space and time, similar to what Heather did in “The Pilot.”  This, too, harkens back to several elements of “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood.”

The Daleks’ goal is to kill the Doctor, whom they say is human, along with Barbara, Ian, and Vicki.  However, they first want to duplicate the Doctor, creating an assassin robot to “infiltrate, separate, and kill.” 

They make an exact replica in the episode “The Death of Doctor Who.”  The Doctor ends up fighting him.  However, in the following season’s “The Gunfighters” story, which we examined in last week’s episode, it’s the Doctor who is the imposter.  Did the Daleks create more than one Doctor robot?  I haven’t seen enough of the 1st Doctor to possibly have a guess.

Anyway, the crew’s disappearance on the _Mary Celeste_ in this 1st Doctor story is attributed to the Daleks showing up just after the Doctor.  The crew thought the Daleks were the Barbary Terror.  It’s also called the White Terror in the episode, a supernatural being which appears to sailors at sea and takes their souls.  It sounds a lot like the siren in “The Curse of the Black Spot.”  The concepts of white and black here, along with concepts from “The Eaters of Light” could refer to the duality.

In reality, the Barbary Terror referred to pirates operating out of North Africa, enslaving Christians mostly for the Ottoman Empire.  So the use in the episode refers to slavery and most likely mind control.  It also sounds like the werewolf in “Tooth and Claw” that carved out the boy’s soul and sat in his heart.  


####  **The _Lusitania_ , Assassination & Meddling with Time**

Nardole mentioned the _Lusitania_ to the Picts but didn’t elaborate.  More ship problems.  I knew the history of it, but I didn’t know the reference in the DW universe.

 **Tip** : Usually, words that stick out, like names, have some subtext meaning.  It’s good to look them up.

The _Lusitania_ is important because of the non-canon audio story.  According to the TARDIS Wikia:

> The RMS _Lusitania_ was an ocean liner torpedoed by the U-20 on 7 May 1915. This act helped provoke the United States into entering World War I two years later. One of the people killed onboard was a petty criminal named Eric Charles Vincent.
> 
> In an alternative timeline, the _Lusitania_ did not sink due to the Fifth Doctor's intervention. Vincent, having survived, went on to kill Alexander Fleming in a botched robbery attempt in December 1927 before the biologist discovered penicillin. Without the protection offered by penicillin, Earth fell prey to new strains of meningitis and pneumonia in 1956. The survivors never developed a space programme. Consequently, the Knights of Velyshaa were not defeated by the Earth Alliance in 3562, as they otherwise would have been. (AUDIO: _The Sirens of Time_ )

Since the audio story supports my new hypothesis, it’s important.

 **Tip** : Be careful with using non-canon references.  If they have other support in the canon or subtext, then, most likely, they are valid to use to support your subtext work.  If they don’t have support, keep them in mind, but I suggest not using them for the time being.  Through your subsequent research, you may find supporting information.

Last week, Bill mentioned something interesting in “The Empress of Mars”:

> **NARDOLE** : The Tardis registered multiple life forms below the surface, so this seems like the best place to look.  
>  **BILL** : Maybe someone's been messing around with time. Like in _The Terminator_. 

In _The Terminator_ , a killer robot time travels to prevent a revolution by assassinating someone.  He’s meddling with time.  In the case of the _Lusitania_ , the 5th Doctor meddled with time.

Moreover, “messing around with time” is a reference to the next 1st Doctor story after _The Chase_ called _The Time Meddler_.  I hadn’t seen this one, either, so I watched it after I finished _The Chase_.

Check out the episode titles:

  * "The Watcher"
  * "The Meddling Monk"
  * "A Battle of Wits"
  * "Checkmate"



Wow, a Monk and chess!  Also, certainly we’ve seen the Monks as watchers, and the face of the 12th Doctor as the totalitarian government was a Watcher.  Also, the Doctor is in a battle of wits with the Monks.

Once again, I was blown away just by the titles.  I need to go check out all the other DW titles to see what I can glean.  The story also tracks closely with what is happening.

The Monk is the 3rd Time Lord to make an appearance in DW, beside the Doctor and Susan Foreman.  

I haven’t watched all the 1st Doctor stories to figure this out, but it looks like there is more than one imposter.  And there is something really odd in _The Chase_ when Vicki, Barbara, and the Doctor just lie down on the ground, like they are taking a nap.  There was something wrong about it, like they were robots, who got turned off.

There are 2 really important concepts that can help explain nuWho that come up in “Journey into Terror.”  It’s a haunted house of psychological terror.   At one point, the Doctor and Ian are stumbling along with only the light of a small torch to guide them.

> **IAN** : Oh, there's one thing about this place, Doctor. It certainly stimulates the phagocytes. The phago? You know, it's uncanny, strange and weird, but it is familiar.

Since phagocytes are certain types of cells that protect the body by ingesting harmful bacteria, foreign particles, dead or dying cells, etc. “phagocytes” makes no sense here given what we think we know.  This tells us something is wrong.

However, it also connects to nuWho and the idea of the Doctor getting an infection, like in “The Lie of the Land” or CAL having an infection, needing Doctor Moon, the virus checker.

On top of that, here is something really fascinating and very relevant just a few seconds later:

> **DOCTOR** : Pre-conditioned. That's it. Pre-conditioned!  
>  **IAN** : What are you talking about now?  
>  **DOCTOR** : This house is exactly what you would expect in a nightmare. Yes, we're in a world of dreams. Creaking doors, thunder and lightning, monsters and all the things that go bumpety bumpety in the night.  
>  **IAN** : With one vital difference, Doctor. This house is real. It exists.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Yes, yes it exists in the dark recesses of the human minds. Millions of people secretly believing. Think of the immense power of all these people, combined together, makes this place become a reality.  
>  **IAN** : Then we're safe.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Safe? What on earth do you mean, dear boy?  
>  **IAN** : But the Daleks can't touch us here? Not in the human mind.  
>  **DOCTOR** : You know, I believe you're right. Yes! The Daleks can never land here!  
>  (They go down the stairs, pausing at the creaky one at the bottom.)

They realize they are pre-conditioned to believe in this dream.  But it’s millions of people secretly believing.  It’s belief that is sustaining this world.  And Ian and the Doctor are wrong.  The Daleks show up.

Here, again, are the concepts of the Library metaphor with CAL and Doctor Moon, in Season 10, especially in “The Lie of the Land.”  We also examined something similar in the 2nd Doctor story “The Mind Robber.”

Belief is what allows evil Fenric to continue in “The Curse of Fenric,” and it feeds the Minotaur in “The God Complex.”  It’s necessary to stop believing or breaking people’s confidence.  So far, it’s been Ace’s confidence in the 7th Doctor, Amy’s confidence in the 11th Doctor, and Bill’s confidence in the 12th Doctor. 

Bill attempted to assassinate the Doctor once her confidence in him was broken in “The Lies of the Land.”

This may be foreshadowing the Doctor and Missy.

####  **The Saxon King & Harry Saxon**

The meddling Monk believes that if he goes back in time and kills the Viking King Harald Hardrada and the rest of his men, who invade Britain shortly before the Battle of Hastings, the last Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson would be freed up to successfully repel William of Normandy’s invasion at Hastings.  The Monk believes in the long run that this would be better for the entire world, and he could help humans have extraordinary technology, like airplanes by the 1300s.

The Monk says he helped the ancients build Stone Henge with aid of anti-gravitational lift – must be Merlin.  The Monk is associated with the Roman Cross, making him a face of the 12th Doctor.  At one point, he and the 1st Doctor are associated with the Redemption Cross.

In the last episode of the story, “Checkmate,” the 1st Doctor leaves a letter on top of the Monk’s TARDIS that looks like a sarcophagus.  Below is the Monk reading the letter.  The Roman cross (yellow arrow) is behind him.  The sarcophagus is to the right.   


The Monk opens the letter:

> **MONK** : The Doctor. (reads) My dear fellow, I'm sure will you excuse me but I didn't want to say goodbye, as you are obviously going to be very busy for some time. He's right there. Just in case you still have ideas about your master plan, I've taken precautions to stop your time meddling. (Laughs. How could he stop a Mark 4?) Possibly one day in the future, when you've learnt your lesson, I shall return and release you. Release me? (Laughs again. Ha! Me? Oh, the old fool. I wonder what he meant by release me? Well, I'll be going.)

The Doctor stole his dimensional control.  Check out this image below.  It looks like the dimensional problem the 12th Doctor had in the Season 8 episode “Flatline,” when the TARDIS shrunk with the Doctor inside.  


**Harry Saxon  
** The Master took the name Harry Saxon for a reason.  Saxon’s have come up 2 times that we’ve seen.  Once with Merlin, who was helping the Britons battle the Saxons, and once above with the Monk.  So the Monk is now helping the Saxons in _The Time Meddler_.  Does the Doctor helping Missy represent this?

Who will kill whom?

##  **Aberdeen, the Assassination Theme, Lies & the Big Bad Wolf**

“The Eaters of Light” opens in Aberdeen, Scotland, which is another reference to “Tooth and Claw,” bringing in all the references to Queen Victoria, Clara, the werewolf, and all the other references we’ve examined in previous analyses, especially [“The Empress of Mars.”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11220990)  

The 12th Doctor, himself, mentioned a wolf and likens it to the monster:

> **BAN** : The Keeper of the Gate. My sister.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Well, let's hope she's the brains of the family, because there's a big bad wolf of a monster out there and you live in a house of sticks.

Also, Aberdeen showed up in “The Lie of the Land.”  The Doctor was on the prison boat off the coast of Aberdeen.  We know that episode was running backward.  The Doctor was possessed in the subtext.  The same thing is happening in this latest episode.

####  **Aberdeen & the Assassination Theme**

Queen Victoria would have traveled to Aberdeen by train, but the implication of the tree on the railway was that it was an assassination attempt.  Assassination has also become a theme with all the references we’ve been seeing.  “The Deadly Assassin” – the 4th Doctor story examined in the ["Extremis" analysis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11002860/chapters/24511071) – tells us there is also framing going on. 

We know the Sun has to die.

##  **Next Chapter**

In the next chapter, we’ll examine the references to love and separation, which is a theme, and we’ll also examine the references that foreshadow the fall of the Doctor.


	3. Growing Up, Love & Separation, the Doctor’s Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hoped to get these chapters out sooner. Only 30 minutes left before the finale starts. I'm sorry about that. We'll examine the long-time themes.
> 
> Season 10 spoiler warnings

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/162262969908/ch-3-the-eaters-of-light-analysis-doctor-who/)

##  **Growing Up as a Theme**

One of the themes of “The Eaters of Light” was about growing up, which can be tied to the cowardice theme from last week’s episode, “The Empress of Mars.”  Growing up can be metaphorical or literal.

Coming of age, facing fears, taking responsibility have all been part of the growing up theme.  In “The Eaters of Light,” we have Roman soldiers who are no older than 18 years.  The Picts were children, too.  Where were all the adults?  While 2nd century Roman Britain had different standards of age and fighting in wars, I’ll apply the coming of age, facing fears, and taking responsibility to them.

Last week, we had Colonel Godsacre stepping up and facing his fear of leadership to take responsibility.

####  **“Amy’s Choice”**

Amy and Rory had an interesting conversation in “Amy’s Choice.”  Rory, Amy, and the Doctor are dealing with the Dream Lord and the dream in the TARDIS.  However, Rory wants the life where they are settled and have a baby.  He was happy in the dream where he was a doctor and Amy was pregnant, but she wasn’t.  Rory’s feeling insecure that Amy wants to stay with the Doctor in the TARDIS.

> **RORY** : You ran off with another man.  
>  **AMY** : Not in that way.  
>  **RORY** : It was the night before our wedding.  
>  **AMY** : We're in a time machine. It can be the night before our wedding for as long as we want.  
>  **RORY** : We have to grow up eventually.  
>  **AMY** : Says who?

I did not expect Amy’s answer about growing up. 

####  **“Human Nature” & “The Family of Blood”**

The 10th Doctor, playing the 24th turned himself human to hide, and now he doesn’t want to go back to being a Time Lord.  At the end of “The Family of Blood,” the Doctor wants to give the beings who are after him the watch with his Time Lord consciousness, so he can remain human:

> **DOCTOR** : I should have thought of it before. I can give them this. Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am.  
>  **MARTHA** : You can't do that!  
>  **DOCTOR** : If they want the Doctor, they can have him.  
>  **MARTHA** : He'll never let you do it.  
>  **DOCTOR** : If they get what they want, then, then  
>  **JOAN** : Then it all ends in destruction. I never read to the end, but those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer, for war across the stars for every child. Martha, Timothy, would you leave us alone, please?  
>  (Martha and Latimer leave. Joan hugs a sobbing Doctor. The bombardment on the village continues as Martha and Latimer sit outside, then she hugs him.)  
>  **JOAN** : If I could do this instead of you, then I would. I'd hoped. But my hopes aren't important.  
>  **DOCTOR** : He won't love you.

The Doctor wants to stay human, so he can love Joan, marry, and have a family.  This suggests the 12th Doctor is having this problem.  In fact, in the Doctor’s living quarters, there is a bowl of apples (yellow arrow) and a snake (white arrow) in the background, showing the temptations of the Doctor as a human in the Garden of End metaphor.  The Roman crosses represent the 12th Doctor or multiple, thereof.  The human is the imposter and must fall.  And that foreshadows what is coming.  


####  **The 12th Doctor**

Missy and the Master are examples of what the Doctor can become, and with the mirrors, that’s a scary thought.  The Doctor needs to face his fear of himself, which resulted in his memory wipe.  

####  **The 1st Doctor & Susan**

Susan represents a coming of age.  She was becoming a young woman and developed a relationship with David Campbell.  Wanting to see her have a normal life, the 1st Doctor left her with David in the 22nd century with a promise.  

> **DOCTOR** : Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David, and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan, goodbye, my dear.

##  **Love & Separation as a Theme**

Love and separation come up in “The Eaters of Light” with Kar leaving her brother behind to guard the gateway to another dimension and fight the Eaters of Light.  However, love and separation has been a theme for a long time.  There’s Rose with the 9th Doctor and then the 10th.  Sarah Jane, too, complained to the 10th Doctor, how he as the 4th Doctor just dropped her off in Aberdeen and never came back.

Regarding River, we first heard about her feeling of separation back in “The Name of the Doctor.”   Of course, there is THORS, TRODM, and the 12th Doctor losing both Clara and River.  Season 10 is no exception.  Not only is Clara’s absence still a problem, but Bill, too, lost Heather, and then there’s Penny.

There’s also the open question of Bill’s mother.

And there are other examples.

We saw above how love and separation goes all the way back to the 1st Doctor and Susan.  I’m betting with the theme coming up so much that we will see her, either in the finale or the Christmas Special.  This seems like such a great family-oriented reunion, which would be fantastic for Christmas.

I especially believe this theme will come up in the finale and maybe Christmas special because Kar and Ban aren’t the only references in the episode to love and separation.  There are several important external allusions, which lead to the expulsion from paradise.

##  **The Opening: Visions of _Outlander_ with Its _Doctor Who_ Connection**

The opening of “The Eaters of Light” seems so similar to the series _Outlander,_ where Claire goes to Scotland and encounters ancient Celtic, stone monuments, called standing stones that broadcast sound, reminiscent of the Celtic music we hear in “The Eaters of Light.” 

If you are not familiar with _Outlander_ , it’s a series of novels that has been turned into a British-American TV series.  While I watch the TV series, I’ve only read the 1st novel.  Wikipedia says of the novels:

> _Outlander_ (published in the United Kingdom as _Cross Stitch_ ) is the first in a series of eight historical multi-genre novels by Diana Gabaldon. Published in 1991, it focuses on the Second World War-era nurse Claire Randall, who travels through time to 18th century Scotland and finds adventure and romance with the dashing Jamie Fraser.

From the beginning of the plot summary:

> In 1946, after working apart during the Second World War, British Army nurse Claire Randall and her husband Frank, a history professor, go on a second honeymoon to Inverness, Scotland. Frank conducts research into his family history and Claire goes plant-gathering near standing stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. She faints when investigating a buzzing noise near the stones; upon waking, she encounters Frank's ancestor, Captain Jack Randall.

When Claire, an Englishwoman, investigates the buzzing noise, she touches one of the ancient Celtic stones and gets transported back to Scotland in 1743.  She finds herself in the middle of a skirmish between rebel Scottish Highlanders and Redcoats.  

After various events and several hardships, she marries Jamie.  While she still wears Frank’s ring on one hand, maintaining hopes of getting back to him, she wears Jamie’s on the other.  Because Frank’s ancestor the captain was a rapist and sadist, who treated the Scots as sub-humans, it does color Claire’s situation.  Encountering the captain on several occasions, she witnessed his behavior first hand.  Jamie has had several encounters, too, some showing the captain in a most sadistic light.

Claire embraces most of the Scottish culture and comes to see the British as occupiers, another form of usurpation.  At one point, we did see her back in the present with a daughter by Jamie.  So Claire is living in 2 worlds.  She loves both men, but love has split them apart.  

Gabaldon really liked DW’s 2nd Doctor companion Jamie Frasier, so she named her romantic lead character after him.  Doing extensive historical research for the series, she has become a noted expert on 18th century Scotland.  Her novels center on the time period of British occupation of Scottish lands, along with the skirmishes and events leading up to the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.   _Outlander_ gives us another usurpation reference, too.

According to [HistoryExtra.com](http://www.historyextra.com/article/feature/10-facts-jacobites-bonnie-prince-charlie-culloden):

> The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion was a turning point in British history. Believing the British throne to be his birthright, Charles Edward Stuart, aka ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, planned to invade Great Britain along with his Jacobite followers and remove the Hanoverian ‘usurper’ George II. Yet, argues Dr Jacqueline Riding, the reality of the ’45 continues to be obscured by fiction and fables.   
>  …  
>  In June 1745, Charles Edward Stuart (b1720) had one key aim: regaining the thrones his grandfather, the Roman Catholic convert James VII of Scotland and II of England and Ireland, had lost in 1688–90 to his nephew and son-in-law William of Orange (who reigned as William III). This ‘glorious’ revolution had confirmed a Protestant succession, in a predominantly Protestant Great Britain, which, from 1714, was embodied in the Hanoverian dynasty.

The term “usurper” depends on which side of the rebellion one is on.  The English called Charles “The Young Pretender.”  The problem comes back to religion, the English Reformation, and Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church.  

Clearly, there is a theme of love and separation, as well as occupation, in both “The Eaters of Light” and in _Outlander_.  

In fact, Kar pours out her heart out about the usurpation by the Romans, which in some sense reminds me of River in THORS:

> **KAR** : Let me tell you about the Romans. They are the robbers of this world. When they've thieved everything on land, they'll rob the sea. If their enemies are rich, they'll take all they have. If their enemies are poor, they'll make slaves of them. Their work is robbery, slaughter, plunder. They do this work and they call it empire. They make deserts and they call it peace.

The Doctor, having both Roman and Scottish connections, gets another ear full.  Clearly, the usurpation applies but most likely the 2 worlds for the Doctor are represented by the 10th Doctor’s dilemma of human vs. being a Time Lord.

We saw the dilemma with Bill and Heather no longer being human.

##  **_The Subtle Knife_ **

When I watched “The Eaters of Light” with my daughter, she mentioned that it seemed similar to _The Subtle Knife_ , a young-adult fantasy novel, written by British author Philip Pullman and published in 1997.  I’ve never read the book, or any of the 3 books in Pullman’s series _His Dark Materials_.  However, from what my daughter said, “The Eaters of Light” referenced it, so I checked it out.

It’s much like the _Outlander_ series in that someone jumps into a portal and enters a different world, so to speak.  According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Subtle_Knife), in the second novel in the series:

> Twelve-year-old Will Parry cares for his mentally ill mother in Oxford. When he accidentally kills an intruder, he runs away and discovers a portal to a parallel universe. In the seemingly deserted city of Cittàgazze, he encounters 12-year-old Lyra Silvertongue and her dæmon Pantalaimon, who arrived via a bridge in the sky created by her father, Lord Asriel.

The [editorial review on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Subtle-Knife-His-Dark-Materials/dp/0440238145) says

> As the novel opens, Will's enemies will do anything for information about his missing father, a soldier and Arctic explorer who has been very much airbrushed from the official picture. Now Will must get his mother into safe seclusion and make his way toward Oxford, which may hold the key to John Parry's disappearance. But en route and on the lam from both the police and his family's tormentors, he comes upon a cat with more than a mouse on her mind: "She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will." What seems to him a patch of everyday Oxford conceals far more: "The cat stepped forward and vanished." Will, too, scrambles through and into another oddly deserted landscape--one in which children rule and adults (and felines) are very much at risk. Here in this deathly silent city by the sea, he will soon have a dustup with a fierce, flinty little girl: "Her expression was a mixture of the very young--when she first tasted the cola--and a kind of deep, sad wariness." Soon Will and Lyra (and, of course, her dæmon, Pantalaimon) uneasily embark on a great adventure and head into greater tragedy.

Will and Lyra are forced to retrieve a special knife that has the ability to cut into other worlds and through any material.  So here’s another reference to a doorway and a world ruled by children, like we saw in “The Eaters of Light.”  Will and Lyra fall in love, but staying in a parallel universe that isn’t their own threatens the destruction of that universe.  So Will can’t stay in the end.

This sounds similar to what happened with Bill and Heather at the end of “The Pilot.”  And the song from the episode “Love Will Tear Us Apart” seems highly appropriate.

Will’s father being a soldier and explorer may give us some information about the Doctor, but not having read the series, I’m going to leave it at this.  If you’ve read the book and have some ideas, let me know.

##  **The Doctor’s Fall: _Paradise Lost_ & _His Dark Materials_**

Pullman took the title of the series, _His Dark Materials_ , from English poet John Milton’s epic poem,   
_Paradise Lost_ , first published in 1667.  According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost):

> The poem concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men."

Pullman’s series, from what I gather, is a reimagining of _Paradise Lost_ for teenagers.  In fact, _His Dark Materials_ comes from _Paradise Lost_ , along with the title of his first book of the series, _The Golden Compass_.

The continuing theme of expulsion from paradise, which we’ve seen multiple times in Season 10 regarding the Doctor, is foreshadowing the Doctor’s fall.  

Anyway, _His Dark Materials_ is a really interesting phrase, especially since we saw the record label in [“The Pilot”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10695525/chapters/23708994) that the Doctor had is a famous trademark: His Master’s Voice, shown below.  


**Tip** : When 2 pieces of subtext sound similar, especially with odd spellings or phrasing, they may very well be related.  This is an exception to our rule requiring 3 occurrences to make a pattern. 

I didn’t have time in [“The Pilot” analysis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10695525/chapters/23708994) to explain more about the label because it’s part of a complicated set of metaphors.  The metaphors were very relevant to [the “Smile” analysis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10758735/chapters/23857932), so I explained more about the label there.  Long story short, it leads to the parody of the painting _The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise_.

Since this all lines up in various ways, I have no doubt my daughter is right about _The Subtle Knife_ connection to “The Eaters of Light.”  There’s much more that connects that we’ll examine below.

##  **The Fallen Angel Theme & the Legend of the Blue Box**

I’ve wanted to talk about the fallen angel theme for a long time, but I haven’t because of time.  However, I need to now, especially because this comes up in multiple ways in “The Eaters of Light.”  And it ties back into several other things we’ve examined.  The Vestal Virgin 2nd Class and the angel reference, as well as the demon and sainted physician from the Legend of the Blue Box.

The big reference to Satan in DW is in the 10th Doctor Ood story “The Satan Pit.”  However, it’s Satan’s name “Lucifer” that is of interest here.  I want to draw a distinction between Satan and Lucifer, which I’ll explain in a few minutes.  

####  **The Name Lucifer & DW Characters with Derivative Names**  


Lucifer literally is "the morning star, bearer of light," derived from _luc-, lux_ "light" and _-fer_ "bearing."

[According to Merriam Webster’s Word Central](http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?Lucifer), 

> What we sometimes call "the morning star" is really the planet Venus. The Romans called it _Lucifer,_ meaning "bearer of light," because it appeared in the sky just before sunrise. So when, in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah says, in describing the downfall of the king of Babylon, "How are you fallen from heaven, O Morning Star, son of dawn," the "Morning Star" became _Lucifer_ in the Latin translation. Early Christians thought that Isaiah was also referring to the devil, who had likewise "fallen from heaven." Thus the word _Lucifer_ came to be applied to the devil.

Lucifer was not always seen as the devil.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, 2 bishops of the early Christian Church bore the name Lucifer.  It goes on to say

> In Latin, the word is applied to John the Baptist and is used as a title of Jesus himself in several early Christian hymns. The morning hymn Lucis largitor splendide of Hilary contains the line: "Tu verus mundi lucifer" (you are the true light bringer of the world).

In fact, it’s only later that Lucifer came to be used as a proper name:

> Later Christian tradition came to use the Latin word for "morning star," lucifer, as a proper name ("Lucifer") for the devil; as he was before his fall. As a result, "'Lucifer' has become a by-word for Satan / the Devil in the church and in popular literature", as in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer and John Milton's Paradise Lost. However, the Latin word never came to be used almost exclusively, as in English, in this way, and was applied to others also, including Jesus. The image of a morning star fallen from the sky is generally believed among scholars to have a parallel in Canaanite mythology.

I’m making a distinction, and I can best show you why with an example.  The Doctor going hell bent through the universe and causing its destruction could easily be seen as Satan.  However, what if the Doctor is in a universe, like alternate-Donna in “Turn Left,” that needs to die to restore the real universe?  He could be seen as Satan in one and a savior in another.

Because DW uses derivative names with the Latin roots _luc-_ and _lux_ , they relate to the name Lucifer.  For now, I don’t want to apply judgment of good or evil to these characters.  I can’t think of any instance where people with the Latin roots _luc-_ and _lux_ in their names are not also mirrors or dark mirrors of the Doctor.

Here are just a few examples of characters related to Lucifer.

 **Lucius in “The Eaters of Light”**  
Lucius, for example in “The Eaters of Light,” comes from the Latin root _lux_ and the Latin verb _lucere_ "to shine."  So he has a connection to Lucifer.  In fact Lucius was also called “Granddad,” which Bill questioned

> **THRACIUS** : Why are you even listening to her, Grandad?  
>  **LUCIUS** : Because no one else is saying anything. We need a plan. A real commander would have a plan.  
>  **BILL** : Why did he call you Grandad?  
>  **LUCIUS** : They always call me Grandad. I'm in command. I'm the oldest one left.  
>  **BILL** : How old are you?  
>  **LUCIUS** : Eighteen.

“Granddad” is a metaphor for the Doctor, so Lucius is a mirror of the Doctor.  He is foreshadowing what is going to happen.

He integrates in a way with Kar to stand together to fight the bigger monster, although it’s a losing battle.  It’s the Doctor joining his duality together.

 **“The Fires of Pompeii” & ****Lucius Petrus Dextrus**  
Lucius Petrus Dextrus was the Chief Augur of Pompeii in 79 AD, shown below, along with Peter Capaldi’s character Lobus Caecilius and his wife Metella.  He supported the Cult of Vulcan, who wanted to convert the population of the world into more Pyroviles.  


Lucius has the gift of prophecy, so he is a dark mirror of the Doctor.

BTW, I’m not sure if I mentioned a wolf connection regarding Caecilius.  Lobus, while meaning lobe, pod, or husk in Latin, is very close to the Spanish word for wolf: lobo.

 **CAL: Charlotte Abigail Lux, “Silence in the Library” & “Forest of the Dead”**  
We know CAL is a mirror of the Doctor, and her last name tells us this, too.  Not only that, but Charlotte Abigail Lux’s father, Felman Lux, built the Library for her.  Felman is an interesting name, especially when we are talking about the Fall of Man and the fall of the Doctor. 

Strackman Lux was the grandson of Felman Lux, and the person who led River’s expedition into the Library.  He said it took 3 generations to figure out how to get into the sealed Library.  He represents the 3rd, which corresponds to a triad of Doctors.  Strackman, shown below from a TARDIS Wikia image, reminds me of Strax with that suit, and the name is really close.  


**“The Rebel Flesh” & “The Almost People”**  
Jennifer Lucas in “The Rebel Flesh” and “The Almost People” has _luc-_ in her name.  In fact, Lucas is a cognate of Lucius.

##  **In Conclusion**

There is a lot of overlap of themes in this chapter of growing up; taking responsibility, which means getting kicked out of paradise; and falling. I’m hanging onto my hat for the wild ride of how all of this foreshadows the finale.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to make this meta series as clear as possible, so if it’s not, please let me know.
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images


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